Scientists have found the world’s oldest hatchet fragment in Australia and have determined it is between 44,000 and 49,000 years old. “This is the earliest evidence of hafted axes in the world. Nowhere else in the world do you get axes at this date,” said Professor O’Connor from the ANU School of Culture, History and Language. “In Japan such axes …

Urine is more accurate than blood in testing for the mosquito-borne Zika virus, a finding that may allow patients with the disease to be more easily diagnosed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. CDC has updated its interim diagnostic testing guidance for Zika virus to recommend real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) testing of urine specimens collected …

The Whale Sanctuary Project, an environmental non-profit group, is eyeing the coast of British Columbia as a potential location to establish a refuge for retired aquarium whales. “If we are interested in phasing out the keeping of dolphins and whales in concrete tanks, we have to have somewhere for them to go,” Whale Sanctuary Project president Dr. Lori Marino told …

Ali Haider Gilani, the abducted son of former Prime Minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani who has been recovered from Afghanistan’s Paktia province has finally reunited with family at Gilani House, Lahore. Ali Haider Gilani was abducted by unknown assailants on 9 May 2013 when eight armed men opened fire at a meeting in Farrukhabad and dragged Ali Haider into a car. …

Research, published this week in JAMA Pediatrics, demonstrates a link between the consumption of artificially sweetened drinks during pregnancy and an increase in the body mass index of their infants. Although the results of the study cannot prove causation, they are sure to spark further research. “Our study provides the first human evidence that maternal consumption of artificially sweetened beverages …

It appears as though U.S. startup MegaBots’ vision for “Pacific Rim”-style competitions is coming closer to reality. TechCrunch has reported that MegaBots, a start-up company in California, has raised US$2.4 million in seed funding to create a new sport involving internally piloted robots. They’re not small buggers: the robots are more than four and a half metres tall and weigh …

For the first time in four decades, oxygen has been detected in the atmosphere of Mars, and even though NASA researchers reported that they had only found half as much as they had expected, the discovery should help them learn more about the Red Planet’s unusual atmosphere. The atmospheric oxygen was detected by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) …

Toronto health officials say the risk of acquiring Lyme disease in Toronto is low but are nonetheless advising residents to be on the lookout for black-legged ticks as the weather begins to warm up. The City of Toronto has posted signs where black-legged ticks are known to be found but are still telling people to take precautions while outdoors in …

Open Media argues the clampdown unfairly targets people who value their privacy online. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is being asked to reverse his company’s crackdown on privacy-conscious VPN users and find a better way of enforcing its contractual obligations to geographic content restrictions. In a letter backed up by an almost 45,000-strong petition, digital rights group OpenMedia asks Hastings to …

New numbers show Canada could be turning the corner in the war on childhood obesity. Health officials often warn about a childhood obesity epidemic, but new research suggests that in Canada, for the first time in years, the numbers of overweight and obese kids have decreased. Between 1978 and 2004, the rate of Canadian kids who were overweight or obese …

A disheveled man was detained by police while roaming around outside Taylor Swift‘s Tribeca home Tuesday, cops said. The incident occurred around 6 p.m., with the unidentified suspect showing up on Swift’s Manhattan doorstep. He was stopped by security, and after a 911 call, both the New York Police Department and New York Fire Department arrived on the scene. The …